C-based languages

Keyboard Shortcuts

C-based languages are used for a variety of application types and have influenced many other programming languages. The C-Based Languages tutorial, as part of the Foundations of Programming course, provides insight into C, its most-common types of uses, skills needed to effectively use C, and common challenges developers face when using C for certain applications. Learn to recognize C and how to get started using it from this Lynda.com JavaScript online video.

I'd be remiss if I didn't first tip my hat to the most influential language on this list, C.…Invented in the early `70s at Bell Labs and still in tremendous use around…the world, C has influenced every language on this list.…Not just the obvious ones like C++, C# and Objective-C, but also languages like…Perl and PHP owe a tremendous amount to C.…Now C is a pure structured language, as I mentioned before.…It's the only non object oriented language that was on the list.…

It's not about classes.…It's not about objects.…It is a fairly low level language that you do have to work with manual memory…management quite a bit.…It is typically a compiled language and strongly typed in the sense that you…don't just create generic variables; you create variables of type integer or…type float or Boolean variables.…Well, it's not too hard to get started with C, the typical skill level is…intermediate to advanced, to even very advanced if you're getting very…detailed with this language.…

And part of the reason for that is what is C used for?…

Resume Transcript Auto-Scroll

Author

Released

9/22/2011

This course provides the core knowledge to begin programming in any language. Simon Allardice uses JavaScript to explore the core syntax of a programming language, and shows how to write and execute your first application and understand what's going on under the hood. The course covers creating small programs to explore conditions, loops, variables, and expressions; working with different kinds of data and seeing how they affect memory; writing modular code; and how to debug, all using different approaches to constructing software applications.

Finally, the course compares how code is written in several different languages, the libraries and frameworks that have grown around them, and the reasons to choose each one.

Topics include:

Writing source code

Understanding compiled and interpreted languages

Requesting input

Working with numbers, characters, strings, and operators

Writing conditional code

Making the code modular

Writing loops

Finding patterns in strings

Working with arrays and collections

Adopting a programming style

Reading and writing to various locations

Debugging

Managing memory usage

Learning about other languages

Skill Level Beginner

4h 47m

Duration

14,115,000

Views

Show MoreShow Less

Q: Using TextEdit with Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks?

A: If you're using the built-in TextEdit program in Mavericks to write your first examples and your code doesn't seem to be working, here's one reason why: by default, "smart quotes" are now turned on in TextEdit Preferences.

This is where TextEdit will automatically change pairs of double quotes to "smart quotes" - where the opening and closing quote are different, like a 66 and 99.

While this is fine for human eyes, programming languages don't want this - when writing code, they need to be the plain, generic straight-up-and-down quotes.

So make sure that in TextEdit > Preferences, that "Smart quotes" are unchecked.

Important! Whenever you make a change to TextEdit preferences, make sure to then completely quit out of the program (Command-Q or using TextEdit > Quit TextEdit) and then re-open it, as changes won't take effect on documents you already have open.

However, we're not finished - just because you've changed the preferences, it does **not** change any *existing* smart quotes back to "regular" quotes - it just doesn't add new ones - so make sure to go through your files for any time you wrote quotes and TextEdit may have changed them to smart quotes - look in both the JavaScript, and your HTML too, and compare to the downloadable exercise files if necessary.

If that sounds like a bit of a chore, I recommend just downloading a code editor like Sublime Text (www.sublimetext.com) or TextMate (www.macromates.com) and using that instead of TextEdit - it's only a matter of time before you'd move away from TextEdit anyway - we only used it in the course because it was built-in and a quick way to get started, but it's now become more of a inconvenience than it was before.